#26: Portrait of a Murderer

The Links

0-05:30 – Intro: on David Bowie and Star Wars: The Force Awakens

The Carrie Fisher tweet Anna mentions.

The Carrie Fisher interview Caroline mentions.

05:30 – Making a Murderer

Watch the whole thing on Netflix.

The science behind the confession of Steve Avery's nephew.

What that terrible courtroom sketch reminds us of.

19:15 – Fun Home

A good account of the feelings Fun Home gives you.

An example of the use of colour in the art.

A good interview with Bechdel about the process of creating Fun Home.

27:50 – Quartet

An interesting review with some insight into the original play.

Joan Sutherland and Pavarotti’s Quartet from Rigoletto.

Next week:

Caroline is watching Sheep in the Big City.

Your questions:

We love reading out your emails. If you have thoughts you want to share on anything we've discussed, or questions you want to ask us, please email us on srslypod[at]gmail.com, or @ us on Twitter @srslypod, or get in touch via tumblr here. We also have Facebook now.

Our theme music is “Guatemala - Panama March” (by Heftone Banjo Orchestra), licensed under Creative Commons. 

See you next week!

PS If you missed #25, check it out here.

#20: Friends, Lovers, Divers

Caroline and Anna talk albums from Joanna Newsom, Bjork and Grimes, Todd Haynes film Carol, and comedy web series Ex-Best.

The Links

Joanna Newsom, Bjork and Grimes

Joanna Newsom’s Divers doesn't seem to be on Spotify, but you can get it on iTunes here. Listen to Grimes’ Art Angels here and Bjork's Vulnicura here.

This is a good piece about Joanna Newsom.

This piece makes the comparison with Elena Ferrante that we talk about on the podcast.

Here's Grimes's own post about Bjork.

Tavi Gevinson's interview with Joanna Newsom (where she talks about liking Grimes).

Carol

Ryan Gilbey's review of Carol, which he calls “as tantalising as hearing a tender ballad on a tinpot transistor”.

Anna's piece about the photographers that influenced the visual style of the film.

An interesting Q & A with director Todd Haynes.

Ex-Best

The full series is available to watch for free here.

Meghan Murphy on friendship break-ups.

Your questions:

We love reading out your emails. If you have thoughts you want to share on anything we've discussed, or questions you want to ask us, please email us on srslypod[at]gmail.com, or @ us on Twitter @srslypod, or get in touch via tumblr here. We also have Facebook now.

Our theme music is “Guatemala - Panama March” (by Heftone Banjo Orchestra), licensed under Creative Commons. 

See you next week!

#16: Lorde, lobsters and lonely hearts

This week, we talk modern dystopia The Lobster, fangirl over Lorde, and remember 90s sitcom on As Time Goes By.

The Links

On The Lobster

Ryan Gilbey's review of the film.

Mark Kermode and Peter Bradshaw's reviews at The Guardian.

On Lorde

The videos for Magnets and Yellow Flicker Beat.

This interview by the wonderful Tavi Gevinson.

On As Time Goes By

We love the outtakes from the show.

Next week:

Caroline is reading the seminal feminist memoir, I Love Dick.

Your questions:

We loved reading out your emails this week. If you have thoughts you want to share on anything we've discussed, or questions you want to ask us, please email us on srslypod[at]gmail.com, or @ us on Twitter @srslypod, or get in touch via tumblr here. We also have Facebook now.

Music

The music featured this week, in order of appearance, is:

The B-52's - Rock Lobster

Disclosure ft. Lorde - Magnets

Lorde - Yellow Flicker Beat (Kanye West Rework)

Our theme music is “Guatemala - Panama March” (by Heftone Banjo Orchestra), licensed under Creative Commons. 

See you next week!

#12: Piping Hot Takes

We talk the patronising critical reaction to Ryan Adams’ Taylor Swift cover album, why we love The Great British Bake Off, and The Lives of Christopher Chant by Dianna Wynne Jones.

The Links

On Ryan Adams / Taylor Swift

Read Anna’s article, “Ryan Adams’ 1989 and the mainsplaining of Taylor Swift”. Links to the sexist mansplainy articles discussed are in there.

Listen to 1989 by Ryan Adams on Spotify.

The problematic video for Taylor Swift’s “Wildest Dreams”.

The Pretty Much Amazing review titled “Taylor Swift Writes Ryan Adams’ Best Album”.

On The Great British Bake Off

Helen Thomas’ article about how the overseas format exports of the Bake Off are different to the British version. Read her episode-by-episode blog for the NS here.

Caroline's most-read article ever: "Diana was framed: why did the Great British Bake Off throw an innocent WI judge to the wolves?".

Paul's lion bread:

This is a tennis cake (who knew?):

The Bake Off’s Tamal is on Twitter @DrRayBakes and Nadiya is @BegumNadiya.

If you have to, hate read this by Quentin Letts: "I adore The Great British Bake Off. But does it have to be so right on?"

Laurie Penny on the darker side of “British twee”.

On The Lives of Christopher Chant

Get a copy of The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones. This is what Caroline's copy looks like (that Anna read):

The Chrestomanci series has a helpful wiki.

Listener Victoria told us on Twitter that she likes the books so much that her cat is named Chrestomanci:

Next week:

We're going to do a special themed episode looking at popular culture adaptations of “highbrow” texts, so Caroline is watching the film She's the Man (based on Twelfth Night).

Your questions:

We loved talking about your recommendations and feedback this week. If you have thoughts you want to share on anything we've discussed, or questions you want to ask us, please email us on srslypod[at]gmail.com, or @ us on Twitter @srslypod, or get in touch via tumblr here. We also have Facebook now.

Music

The music featured this week, in order of appearance, is:

Ryan Adams's Blank Space

Ella Fitzgerald's Petootie Pie.

Our theme music is “Guatemala - Panama March” (by Heftone Banjo Orchestra), licensed under Creative Commons. 

See you next week!

#11: Years of England

This week the past haunts the present: we talk about new film 45 Years, the This Is England series and The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus.

The Links

On 45 Years:

The director of the film, Andrew Haigh, talked on the Barbican film podcast about 45 Years and working with Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay.

“Amid the suspicion there is tenderness too”, writes Mark Kermode of the film.

Film4 have got a longish interview with Haigh, Rampling and Courtenay:

On This is England:

All4 has all the episodes here.

The Guardian is doing recaps of This Is England 90 here.

Louisa Mellor on Den of Geek takes a look back at the whole series.

On The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus:

Here's a clip:

A bit more background on how the show came to be here.

Next week:

Anna is reading The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne-Jones.

Your questions:

We loved talking about your recommendations and feedback this week. If you have thoughts you want to share on anything we've discussed, or questions you want to ask us, please email us on srslypod[at]gmail.com, or @ us on Twitter @srslypod, or get in touch via tumblr here.

Music

The music featured this week, in order of appearance, is:

1) Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - The Platters
2) Fool's Gold - The Stone Roses
3) Sympathy for the Devil (Live) - The Rolling Stones (from The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus)

Our theme music is “Guatemala - Panama March” (by Heftone Banjo Orchestra), licensed under Creative Commons. 

See you next week!

#10: Catch Me If You Can

We talk genre-twisting action movie American Ultra, new Channel 4 series Hunted and BBC Radio 4 sitcom Cabin Pressure. Also: what TV shows you should watch if you're ill, sequels vs "original" screenplays and how good would we be at being on the run?

The Links

On American Ultra

Ryan Gilbey for the NS on the appeal of American Ultra:

The idea that there are buried and unknowable parts of ourselves that can be triggered at will is an attractive one that has its roots in psychoanalytic theory. It means that no matter how mundane our lives, how dismal or underdeveloped our personalities, there is another us lurking within. A spectacular us.

Mark Kermode's review of the film.

A summary of Max Landis’s tweets about the box office potential of “original” cinema.

On Channel 4’s Hunted

The trailer:

This reviewer found it "enlightening and scary". This one didn't.

If you're considering going on the run from the surveillance state yourself, here are two handy guides.

On Cabin Pressure

Listen to clips from the show on YouTube.

Caroline's article about radio comedy, which includes an interview with Cabin Pressure writer John Finnermore.

Find “the fandot” on tumblr.

For next week:

Caroline is watching The Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus. A preview:

Your questions:

If you have thoughts you want to share on anything we've discussed, or questions you want to ask us, please email us on srslypod[at]gmail.com, or @ us on Twitter @srslypod, or get in touch via tumblr here.

Our theme music is “Guatemala - Panama March” (by Heftone Banjo Orchestra), licensed under Creative Commons.

#7: Paper Boys and Paper Towns

The Links

On One Direction:

One Direction fans are fiercely intelligent. From day one, they engineered the band’s success on their own terms: demonstrating their appetite for the boys’ music on social media sealed the original record deal; calling out the band’s management for tweeting from their accounts forced a closer relationship between the boys as individuals and their fans; downloading specific songs multiple times ensured they would get radio play and a place in the charts. When One Direction unequivocally thank their fans for their success, it goes beyond the usual media-approved cliché, because it is unavoidably, undeniably true. One Direction is a towering monument to the power of teenage girls. It is a phenomenon so much greater than the four or five mediocre men that constitute it."

Anna has written a great piece about the One Direction fandom and her own relationship with it.

You should also check out the 1D starter playlist she made for Caroline a while back, and listen to SRSLY #1, where Caroline listens for the first time.

Samantha Hunt's amazing essay "There Is Only One Direction" for New York Magazine is here.

On Who Killed Elsie Frost?:

You can find all the episodes and more info here.

This Guardian report has some useful background to the case.

On Paper Towns:

Watch the trailer:

Here is John Green's answer on Manic Pixie Dream Girls and his story.

He's also written more on this subject here.

On Broad City:

There are clips and stuff on their YouTube channel.

Our colleague Stephanie Boland has written about why you should be watching Broad City.

Your questions:

If you have thoughts you want to share on anything we've discussed, or questions you want to ask us, please email us on srslypod[at]gmail.com, or @ us on Twitter @srslypod, or get in touch via tumblr here.

Our theme music is “Guatemala - Panama March” (by Heftone Banjo Orchestra), licensed under Creative Commons.

See you next week!

#2: Rippling Torsos and Rihanna

In this week’s episode, we discuss Rihanna’s new video with guest June Eric-Udorie, reveal our love for Magic Mike XXL and work out why Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice totally works on YouTube.

The Links

On Rihanna:

June’s piece is here.

(Helen Lewis and Margaret Corvid have also written excellent things on BBHMM that are worth checking out.)

Sunny Singh’s piece is here.

Doreen St Felix’s piece is here.

On Magic Mike:

Watch the trailer now, thank us later:

Anne Helen Petersen at Buzzfeed has explored the film’s expression of female desire here.

Alison Wilmore, Buzzfeed's film critic, has written about the film's fanservice and how smart it is.

And here are two pieces about the both films’ relationship with the female gaze.

On the Lizzie Bennet Diaries:

As a taster, here’s episode one:

The full web series is available in this playlist here. Or if you don’t have time for all of that, Caroline’s made a highlights version which you can see here.

For next week, Caroline is reading Rookie – and you can too, here.

Our theme music is “Guatemala - Panama March” (by Heftone Banjo Orchestra), licensed under Creative Commons.

#1: Grey Beginnings

This week, we try our hardest to read E L James's Grey, talk the new Amy Winehouse biopic with Kate Mossman, and discover our inner Directioner.

The Links

The quote that Anna read is from I Love Dick by Chris Kraus.

This is the John Scalzi quote Caroline read.

You can see some clips from the Amy Winehouse documentary here, and watch the trailer below.

More info about the Kurt Cobain film, Montage of Heck, can be found here.

The Pitchfork piece about the gendering of martyred rock stars is here.

If you really feel you have to, you can buy Grey by E L James here.

Laurie Penny’s piece on Fifty Shades of Grey is here. Helen Lewis and Zoe Margolis are also both very good on this subject.

Listen to the One Direction playlist that Anna made for Caroline here.

Samantha Hunt's piece about the "darkness in this light music that stirs thoughts of life, death, gender, literature, and the multiple problems of aging" is here.

And if you’d like to discover The Lizzie Bennet Diaries with Anna before next week’s episode, you can watch the entire series here.